Consumers have been found to desire their fabrics, such as garments to appear and feel crisp and freshly pressed prior to wear. Current ways to prepare fabrics such as garments include washing and drying, followed by ironing or pressing or taking the fabrics to the dry cleaners. Some manufacturers have recently marketed fabric treatment devices to reduce odors and wrinkles. These devices typically use steam or a misting mechanism to wet the fabrics then allow the fabrics to dry within the device. Although these devices are described to provide freshening and dewrinkling benefits, it has been found that the devices do not provide sufficiently crisp appearance and feel within a sufficient amount of time and energy use.
Steam based devices for treating fabrics typically heat a volume of water to boiling point, thereby generating steam. Heating the water to boiling point requires a considerable amount of energy and heat. Further, the heating device used by the apparatus requires a certain amount of time to reach the temperature required to heat the water to boiling temperature. Typically, the device does not activate the heating element until the user inserts clothing and turns the device on. This process typically takes a long time to run and complete the treatment cycle. Consumers have been found to desire the treatment to be completed in a short amount of time such that the fabrics can be treated within the amount of time it would typically take a consumer to prepare in the morning. A steam based fabric treatment device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,961 issued to Estes et al.
Another type of fabric treating device which distributes fluids, such as water and/or chemical compositions, onto the fabrics by misting within the device or distributing the fluid directly onto the fabrics is U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,346 issued to Chen et al. One known problem with this approach is that the mist may undesirably collect unevenly at certain portions of the fabrics depending on the flow of air within the device. Another problem is that the device may take an undesirably long amount of time to sufficiently wet the fabrics as the mist circulating within the device is difficult to control and direct onto the fabrics within the device.
Yet another type of fabric treating device involves the use of ultrasonic nebulizers to distribute the fluids onto the fabrics are known. See e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,186 to Gaaloul et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,367,137 Jonsson et al. One drawback to ultrasonic nebulizers is that the ultrasonic nebulizers are typically designed for low flow rates, such as low as 2 grams of fluid/minute per nebulizer head. Increasing the flow rates has been found to be problematic as increased flow through the nebulizer could result in insufficient fluid distribution. The insufficient fluid distribution leads to certain portions of the fabrics not being properly treated and can require increased run time to dry excessively wetted portions of the fabrics.
Despite these and other attempts to provide fabric refreshing devices, there remains a need for a device which provides sufficient crispness appearance and feel within a short amount of time and is energy efficient.